The most debated narrator in English literature. A twenty-year-old clergyman's daughter, educated but economically dependent, given absolute authority over two children by an employer who told her never to contact him. She is either a heroic woman fighting supernatural evil to protect innocent children, or a sexually repressed, psychologically unstable woman whose delusions destroy them. James makes both readings equally sustainable. Her narration is confident, elaborate, and self-justifying — qualities of either a clear-eyed witness or a sophisticated fabulist.

Ten years old, expelled from school for unspecified reasons, described as angelic and precociously intelligent. Miles is the novella's central object of contention — the governess and Quint's ghost are fighting for his soul, or the governess is projecting corruption onto an innocent child. His death in the final scene is either the cost of exorcism or the consequence of persecution. He speaks with an uncanny maturity that is either evidence of ghostly influence or simply the product of a bright, privileged upbringing.

Eight years old, beautiful, charming, and ultimately the first child to break under the governess's pressure. Flora's denunciation at the lake — her furious insistence that she sees nothing — is either a corrupted child defending her secret or a terrorized child fighting back. Her subsequent illness and vulgar language are either symptoms of Jessel's influence or trauma responses. She survives the novella, unlike her brother.

The illiterate but warm-hearted housekeeper who serves as the governess's sounding board and the novella's internal audience. She never sees the ghosts, which either means the ghosts choose not to appear to her or that they do not exist. Her inability to read — literally and figuratively — makes her dependent on the governess's interpretations. She represents the reader's dilemma: she wants to believe the governess but increasingly cannot.

The master's former valet, now dead, who appears to the governess on the tower and at windows. In life, he exceeded his social station, wore the master's clothes, and was 'too free' with Miles. Whether his ghost is a genuine supernatural presence seeking to corrupt the children or a projection of the governess's anxieties about male sexuality and class transgression is the novella's central question. He never speaks — the governess assigns him motives based on her own interpretation.

The previous governess, also dead, who appears across the lake and in the schoolroom. She had an illicit relationship with Quint and was, according to Mrs. Grose, 'infamous.' She represents the governess's dark double — a woman in the same position who was destroyed by sexual transgression. The current governess's fury toward Jessel may be horror at the ghost or horror at seeing her own potential fate.

The children's legal guardian, a wealthy bachelor in Harley Street who hires the governess and then vanishes from the narrative. His absolute refusal to be involved creates the conditions for the entire tragedy. He is attractive, charming, and utterly irresponsible. The governess's attraction to him — mentioned once and then suppressed — may be the psychological engine driving her entire experience at Bly.